Dutch Custom House Seal, 111, Image & Found by Bobhoe.
Found at Castle Hedingham.
A Dutch Custom House seal with typical lachrymiform (teardrop) shape. The obverse depicts the crowned Dutch shield bearing the rampant lion of Holland Post 1815*. The reverse has the inscription, R & A (Rechten en Accijnzen = Duties and Excise) over the control number, 111.
*The arms, consisting of a crowned lion armed and langued, holding in his dexter paw a sword and in the sinister paw seven arrows tight together, were first used in The Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces from 1584 until 1796 when revolution replaced it. It was returned in its current form in 1815 as the Lesser Arms of the Netherlands. However the colour change of the background from red to blue cannot be seen on a lead impression and the only visual difference is the billets from the house of Nassau (small rectangles on the background which are only faintly evident on a few of the seals). This means the seals cannot be older than 1815 and were probably unlikely to be still in use after the early 20th century.
